Credit card embossing and recording system

ABSTRACT

A system and method for embossing a plurality of lines and recording encoded tracks of digitally encoded characters for credit cards is disclosed. The system provides an improved recording station for sequentially recording the characters and verifying that the characters were recorded without error. The improved method verifies the accuracy of the encoded data by a comparison of recorded data with data which was the source of the recorded data.

This is a divisional of application Ser. No. 878,664, filed June 23,1986, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,686,898.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

Reference is made to application Ser. No. 820,705 entitled "Credit CardEmbossing System" which was filed on Jan. 21, 1986, which is assigned tothe assignee of the present application. The disclosure of applicationSer. No. 820,705 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to machines for the preparation of cards withembossed alphanumeric text and one or more tracks of magneticallyrecorded digitally encoded information. Cards of the aforementioned typeare known conventionally as credit cards.

2. Description of the Prior Art

The assignee of the present invention has marketed an embossing systemwith the model identification of the Model 1803. That embossing systemis characterized by a high throughput of embossed cards, is smaller insize than its predecessors used for embossing cards such as credit andpromotional cards, has low energy consumption, low cost and highembossing accuracy. The Model 1803 is described in detail in applicationSer. No. 820,705. The Model 1803 does not have a magnetic recordingstation for recording one or more tracks of digitally encoded characterson the magnetic recording medium typically found on a conventionalcredit card. Embossing systems for making credit cards which include amagnetic recording system are more versatile than the Model 1803 for thereason that they can be used for both the making of promotional cards,which do not have a magnetic recording medium and credit cards.Currently hundreds of millions of credit cards and promotional cards aremade each year.

An important feature of the Model 1803 is the use of single cardtransport mechanism to move cards between successive in line embossingunits for embossing multiple lines of alphanumeric characters with oneline being embossed with OCR characters of one pitch and two lines ofalphanumeric characters of a second pitch. While the card transportmechanism has proved satisfactory in operation, its cost of manufacturehas been relatively high because of the use of multiple rolling supportsfor each of a plurality of card gripping units and cams for activatingand deactivating the card gripping functions of the card gripping units.

The Model 1803 transport mechanism establishes a horizontal referenceposition of the individual cards with respect to the individualembossing units by a pin which extends orthogonal to the direction oftravel of a belt carrying the card gripping units from the rear portionof a trailing card gripping unit attached to the belt. This mechanism,while being adequate for a system for embossing promotional cards whichdo not have precise tolerances for the beginning and ending of embossedand magnetically recorded digitally encoded tracks of characters isinadequate to establish requisite positional tolerances for embossedlines of characters and magnetically recorded tracks in credit cards.The manufacturing operation of the belt in the Model 1803 does notpermit the accurate location of the card gripping unit to a center tocenter spacing of adjacent pins that is necessary to meet embossed andmagnetically recorded track locations for credit cards.

The stacker for the Model 1803, which collects the completed embossedcards, has a surface for receiving the embossed cards in the samehorizontal plane as the transport path of the embossed cards through atopping section. This system has the disadvantage that the frictionalforces between adjacent embossed cards can be so high to interfere withthe individual cards being properly discharged from the topper transportunit into their proper position on the surface in the stacker.

Certain credit cards, such as AMERICAN EXPRESS, have the account numbercharacters indented on the back surface by the joint action of a malepunch which penetrates the back surface without appreciably deformingthe front surface and an anvil which impacts the front surface toprovide support. A ribbon is used to apply highlighting to the indentedcharacters to make them visible. This embossing is known as "indentprinting".

Commercial embossing systems for making credit cards have one or morepairs of embossing wheels for embossing separate lines of 7 and 10 pitchcharacters including the customer's name, account, expiration date andorganization affiliation in 10 pitch alphanumeric characters, thecustomer's account in 7 pitch OCR characters and indent printing of theaccount number in 10 pitch characters. These systems activate both themale and female character forming elements by a pair of movable elementssuch as pivotable arms. The embossing wheels are positioned, by one ormore shaft encoders, in the imprinting position for the desired 7 or 10pitch character or the desired indent character to be printed. The oneor more embossing wheels require complementary sets of parts for theactivation of both the male punch and anvil for indent printing whichcomplicates the structure and increases the cost to perform indentembossing. The Model 1803 embossing system manufactured by the assigneeof the present invention does not perform indent printing.

Patents 4,180,338 and 4,378,733 disclose card embossing systems withcharacter sets being carried by a pair of wheels.

The Model 15000 embossing system manufactured by Data Card Corporationhas a separate station for performing indent printing. The specificationof the vertical location of the indent printing line on a credit cardprevents the use of a common support shaft for the pair of wheelsrespectively carrying the male and female embossing elements. Thevertical location of the line of indent printing is so close to the topof the card that the botton edge of the card interferes with the axis ofrotation of the pair of wheels to prevent passage between the wheels.The Model 15000 uses a pair of embossing wheels which are respectivelydriven by separate shaft encoders that respectively carry a male indentembossing element and a movable anvil. Because a common shaft could notbe used, it was necessary to use a second expensive shaft encoder foreach of the individual wheels of the indent printer in order to maintainproper position of the characters for embossing.

Embossing systems which use a single pair of wheels to emboss allcharacters, including indent type characters, cannot use a commonsupport shaft to bear the high forces present in embossing thenon-indent characters. Without a common support shaft, it is necessaryto employ massive support structures to bear the high forces presentduring embossing non-indent type characters. The Data Card Model 15000uses this type of design.

In the credit card industry it is essential that the digitally encodedmagnetically recorded tracks of characters must be recorded with totalaccuracy without dropouts being present. Verification systems fordetermining the accuracy of recording the tracks of digitally encodeddata on a magnetic recording medium of a credit card in embossingsystems are known. A first type of system uses a recording head whichrecords digital data on the magnetic recording medium of a credit cardand a separate playback head physically displaced from the recordinghead. With this system the previously recorded magnetic recording mediumof the credit card is played back by the playback head for verificationof the accuracy of the recording process. The data card Model 1500 and15000 embossing systems uses the aforementioned verification system. Theplayed back data is compared with stored data which was desired to berecorded to complete the verification process. A second type of systemis exemplified by that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,853 which hasbeen utilized in the Data Card Corporation Model 300 embossing system.This system uses a single fixed magnetic head which records the digitaldata on the recording medium on the first pass of the card past the headand verifies the accuracy of the recording with a second pass of thecard past the head in the same direction as recording with the playedback data being compared with the stored source of the data which wasdesired to be recorded.

Both of the aformentioned systems have disadvantages. The first systemrequires additional space for the separated heads which adds to theexpense of the system and affects throughput. The second system has thedisadvantage of requiring four passes of the card past the record headto complete the recording and verification process which also affectsthroughput.

Verification systems for recorded data are also known outside the creditcard industry which use two physically separated magnetic heads whichare moved in unison to perform the recording and verification process ofencoded digital data. The first head records the digital data. Thesecond head reads the data which has previously been recorded. The datawhich is read by the second head is compared with data stored in memorywhich was the source of the data to be recorded. The aforementionedtechnique of verification of the accuracy of the recording of data usingtwo heads would have disadvantages in an embossing and encoding systemfor credit cards wherein individual cards are sequentially processed. Inthe first place, in order to read and write with two heads whileprocessing the same card requires the adjacent heads to be magneticallyshielded from each other to avoid cross-coupling that could introduceerror into the verificaton process. Second, the physical separation ofrecord and playback heads to respectively record and playback from thesame card or adjacent cards would increase the length of the transportsystem from the source of the blank cards to the topping station whichcould affect throughput. In the situation where the heads would recordand play back from adjacent cards, the transport system path lengthwould be elongated by more than a card length.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,211 discloses a system for verifying the accuracy ofthe recording process of single multibit characters on a magnetic tapewhich reverses the direction of tape motion for the playback of arecorded character. A single magnetic head records a single digitallyencoded character by movement of the tape in a first direction and playsback the single recorded character for verification of the accuracy ofthe recording process by movement of the tape in a second directionopposite to the first direction. This patent is directed to verificationof the accuracy of the recording of a single multibit character at atime and does not disclose the use of a check character in the processof verification of a string of digitally encoded multiple characters ofdigital data stream by playback of the recorded data with movement ofthe magnetic recording medium in the opposite direction.

Prior to description of the present invention, it is important tounderstand the layout of the front and back sides of a conventionalcredit card such as, but not limited to, AMERICAN EXPRESS. Credit cardshave up to four lines of embossed alphanumeric characters comprised ofan OCR 7 pitch account number and two or three lines of 10 pitchalphanumeric characters identifying the customer name, expiration dateand optionally the customer's group affiliation and one line of 10 pitchindent printing which typically is located on the back surface.

FIG. 1a illustrates the front surface of a typical credit card 10 of theabove-referenced type which is embossed with the present invention. Asillustrated, the card 10 has a format of a conventional credit card. Theline 14 is the account number which is embossed with numeric charactersof 7 pitch with center to center spacing of 1/7 of an inch. Twoadditional lines 16 are embossed with alphanumeric lines of charactersof 10 pitch with a center to center spacing of 1/10 of an inch. Theselines typically identify the expiration date of the card and thecustomer's name. One additional line 18, which identifies the customer'saffiliation, may be embossed. The legend at the bottom of the card ismarked in units of distance that the transport unit for the cards movesduring the embossing of 7 and 10 pitch characters in the Model 1803described above and in the present invention. The "0" positionrepresents the left-hand margin which is specified by industryspecification and the "180" represents the right-hand margin which isalso specified by industry specification. The movement of the cardtransport unit in terms of the basic unit of distance is describedbelow.

FIG. 1b illustrates the back surface 20 of the credit card of theabove-referenced type which is printed with indent characters of theaccount number and magnetically recorded with three stacks of digitallyencoded characters. The three tracks are contained on a magneticrecording medium 22. The layout of the three tracks is described belowin conjunction with FIG. 2. The indent printing 24 is formed by a maleprinting element which forces a ribbon bearing a black plastic coatinginto the surface of the back surface 20 to produce a blackened indentedprint of the account number. The front surface 12 of the card is notappreciably deformed as a consequence of the front of the card beingforced into surface contact with a fixed anvil as the indent charactermale element impacts the corresponding area on the back surface.

FIG. 2 illustrates a breakdown of the information content of the tracks1, 2 and 3 of digitally encoded characters which may be present on acredit card. The information to the right of the track identificationnumber respectively states the recording density in bits per inch, thenumber of bits per character and the maximum character number of each ofthe tracks. The tracks 1, 2 and 3 are recorded with the above-referencedconfiguration in accordance with the industry standard discussed belowin FIGS. 3-5. Track 1 was developed by the International Air TransportAssociation (IATA). Track 2 was developed by the American BankersAssociation (ABA). Track 3 was developed by the thrift industry. Fewercharacters than the maximum number illustrated in FIG. 2 are typicallyused with the track length of encoded characters being proportional tothe number of characters.

FIG. 3 illustrates a detailed breakdown of the information content oftrack 1 described above with reference to FIG. 2. Track 1 begins with astart sentinel SS which is encoded as a % character, followed by aformat code FC, followed by a field separator or FS which is encoded bya left parenthesis character, followed by the card holder's name,followed by another field separator, followed by additional data,followed by an end sentinel ES, which is encoded by a question markcharacter, and concluding with longitudinal redundancy check characterLRC. The longitudinal redundancy check character LRC is formed by thesequential calculation of EXCLUSIVE OR function of each of the bits ofthe 78 characters preceding the LRC. The LRC is calculated by thecorresponding encoding bits of the first and second characters beingexclusively ORed together, followed by the third character beingexclusively ORed with the resultant of the previous EXCLUSIVE ORfunction, etc. until all of the characters have been processed by theEXCLUSIVE OR logic function. The LRC is a type of "check character"which is a unique function of the encoded characters which precede theLRC. The LRC character is an industry specification for verification ofthe accuracy of the recording process.

FIG. 4 illustrates a detailed breakdown of the information content oftrack 2 described above with reference to FIG. 2. The track 2 containsSS, PAN, FS, Additional Date, ES and LRC fields of the same generalpurpose described above with reference to FIG. 3. Track 2 omits the FCfield found in track 1 described below. The LRC is calculated in amanner analogous to the LRC of track 1 described above.

FIG. 5 illustrates a detailed breakdown of the information content oftrack 3 described above with reference to FIG. 2. The LRC is calculatedin a manner analogous to the LRC of FIG. 1.

The recording of each of the tracks begins with the start sentinel SSand ends with the LRC. Industry standards specify that the centerline ofthe first data bit of the SS for each track is located 0.293±0.20 inchesfrom the right-hand margin and the centerline of the last bit of the LRCis located no closer to the left-hand edge than 0.273 inches.

The encoding technique for each track is a two frequency coherent phaserecording in which the data is comprised of data bits and clocking bitstogether in one signal. An intermediate flux transition occurringbetween clocking transitions signifies a high level (one) and theabsence of an intermediate flux transition signifies a low level (zero).The data for each track from the SS to the LRC is recorded as acontinuous sequence of encoded multibit characters without interveninggaps. The encoding technique is described in detail on pages 8-10 of theAug. 30, 1975 publication of the American National Standards Institute,Inc. entitled American National Standard Magnetic-Stripe Encoding forCredit Cards.

The portion of the magnetic recording medium which precedes the firstbit of the start sentinels SS of each track 1, 2 and 3 and the portionof the magnetic recording medium which follows the last bit of thelongitudinal redundancy check character LRC is recorded with successivebinary zeros. The first bit of the SS is always chosen as a "1" to markthe beginning of each track.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is an improved system for embossing credit cardswith alphanumeric characters, including printing of indent typecharacters and for recording one or more tracks of digitally encodedcharacters on a magnetic recording medium disposed on the card. Thesystem has low energy consumption, high embossing and recording accuracyand is lower in cost than prior art high throughput embossers used forembossing credit cards.

High throughput is achieved as a consequence of several attributes ofthe invention. A compact magnetic stripe recording station and closespacing between multiple embossing units which each emboss a differentline of characters minimizes transport time of cards through the system.Recording and playback with a single magnetic head assembly provides themost compact spacing in the magnetic recording station. Verification ofthe accuracy of the recording of the encoded data by playing back therecorded data by movement of the head assembly in a direction oppositeto the direction of recording minimizes the time required to transversethe head assembly to complete the recording process. The process forverification of the recording accuracy of one or more tracks isdependent on the ability to recognize the playback of a digitallyencoded check character from the played bit streams during movement ofthe head assembly in a direction opposite to the direction of movementduring recording. Once the check character is recognized, the followingcharacters are compared sequentially as they are played back with storedcharacters which were the source of the characters to be recorded. Thisprocess uses the programmed microprocessor of the recording stationcontroller.

The card transport mechanism of the present invention is less costlythan the card transport mechanism described in Ser. No. 820,705 which isfound in the assignees Model 1803 embossing system. The transportmechanism provides both horizontal and vertical datum positions for eachcard being embossed by multiple in line embossing units without numerousroller bearings, moving parts and cams which characterized the transportmechanism of the Model 1803. A position adjustment of the horizontaldatum position of the cards with respect to the belt of the cardtransport unit permits an accurate center to center spacing to beachieved that is necessary to meet the specifications of credit cardsfor the location of embossed characters without a high costmanufacturing process for the belt.

The stacking station of the present invention has the advantage over thestacking station of the Model 1803 in that the cards fall from thehorizontal card transport path through the topping station to aninclined surface on the stacking station which minimizes binding betweenadjacent cards which could interfere with their being properly stacked.Binding of the embossed characters is minimized between a card beingdischarged from the topping station transport unit and the last cardreceived by the stacking station because the characters are not alignedat the time of discharge with gravity supplying sufficient energy tohave them properly stacked.

The indent printer of the present invention has a simplified structureas compared to the prior art indent printers which move both the malepunch elements and the anvils to print indent type characters. Thestructure of the anvil in the present invention is fixed. A singlemovable element is used to activate the chosen male punch element whichis selected by movement of a single wheel to a circumferential positionof the movable element.

A recording system for embossing blank cards with a plurality ofvertically separated horizontally disposed lines in which characters areto be embossed with at least one line being embossed with characters ofa first pitch and at least one line being embossed with characters of asecond pitch and for magnetically recording digitally encodedinformation on one or more tracks of a recording medium disposed on thecard in accordance with the invention includes a card supply for feedingblank cards to be embossed from a pickup station to a recording stationwhere the one or more tracks are recorded, the recording station havinga recess for receiving individual blank cards which are fed by the cardsupply and holding the individual cards in a fixed recording positionwhile the one or more tracks are recorded; a card transporting unit forreceiving blank cards to be embossed from the recording station and fortransporting the cards received from the recording station along a cardtransport path to a plurality of separate embossing positions and to aposition where embossing is completed; a recording mechanism mounted inproximity to the recording station, the recording mechanism having ahead assembly including a head for recording and playback which ismovable along the magnetic recording medium of a card to cause digitallyencoded information to be recorded on the one or more tracks of themagnetic recording medium when moved in a forward direction and to beplayed back from the magnetic recording medium when moved in a reversedirection; a plurality of card embossing units each disposed at aseparate one of the embossing positions disposed along the cardtransport path, each card embossing unit being vertically positionedwith respect to the card transport path to emboss a different one of thehorizontally disposed lines of characters on each card with either thefirst or the second pitch, at least one of the horizontally disposedlines being embossed with the first pitch and at least one of thehorizontally disposed lines being embossed with the second pitch; and acontroller coupled to the card supply mechanism, the recording mechanismand the card transporting unit and the plurality of card embossing unitsfor controlling the card supply mechanism to feed blank cards from thepickup station to the recording station, the recording of the one ormore tracks of the recording medium by activating the head transportingmechanism to move the head assembly in the forward direction while thehead records the tracks, the playback of the recorded information by thehead by activating the head transporting mechanism to the head mechanismin the reverse direction and verification that the information which wasrecorded is that which was desired to be recorded by comparing theplayed back information with the information which was desired to berecorded which is stored in storage, the transporting of the cardsreceived by the card transporting unit from the recording station to theseparate embossing positions along the card transport path and theposition where embossing is completed and the plurality of cardembossing units to emboss the plurality of lines on each blank card.

The card transporting unit includes a card transporting channelextending from the ready station along the card transport path past eachof the plurality of card embossing units for conveying cards past eachof the plurality of embossing units and the card transporting channel isdefined by mechanisms for engaging opposed edges of individual cards.The mechanism for engaging opposed edges of individual cards comprises afixed card edge guiding unit extending from the ready station along thecard transport path past each of the plurality of card embossing units,the fixed card edge guiding unit establishing a vertical referenceposition of the cards along the card transport path with respect to eachof the plurality of card embossing units and engaging one of the opposededges of the card; and a plurality of vertically movable card edgeguiding units for biasing the other edge of the card downward to facethe one edge against the vertical reference position, a verticallymovable card edge guiding unit being associated with each of the cardembossing units to bias the other of the opposed edges of the cardtoward the vertical reference position. Each vertically movable cardedge guiding unit includes a pair of pivotable elements which are biasedagainst the other edge of the card disposed at the associated cardembossing unit to force the one opposed edge into contact with the fixedcard edge guiding unit. The fixed card edge guiding unit is comprised ofa horizontally extending channel which is disposed in a straight linedefining the vertical reference position of the cards during embossingand indent printing, the horizontally extending channel being disposedon an infeed side and a discharge side of each embossing unit and eachof the vertically movable card edge guiding units has a slot forreceiving the other edge and the front and rear sides of the card whilethey are transported along the card transport path with the slot beingdefined by a top surface with downwardly depending sides extending fromopposed edges of the surface. Each of the vertically movable card edgeguiding units is pivotably mounted to a support member with the axis ofrotation parallel to the card transport path and a spring engages thesupport member and each of the pivotable elements to force the slot ofeach of the vertically movable card edge guiding units to engage theother of the opposed edges of the card to force the one opposed edgeinto contact with the vertical reference surface.

A card engaging mechanism is provided having a plurality of cardengaging projections attached to a belt at evenly spaced locations. Theprojections extend orthogonally from the direction of motion of the beltalong the card transport path and engage an edge of a card at the readystation when the belt is moved after the card is positioned at the readystation to establish a horizontal reference position of the card withrespect to the belt throughout embossing by the plurality of embossingunits. The spacing between the card engaging projections is adjustableto permit spacing between successive card engaging projections to beadjusted to the uniform spacing desired between embossing units. Theadjustment is provided by each card projection being rotatably attachedto the belt within a recess extending within the belt orthogonal to thedirection of travel with a portion of the projection which engages acard being eccentric to the recess so that rotation of the projectionvaries the spacing between the projection and adjacent projections.

Preferably, the pickup station lies in a first vertical plane and therecording station lies in a second vertical plane and a mechanism isprovided for forcing the card from the first plane into the second planewhen the card supply mechanism feeds the card to the recording station.Furthermore, a mechanism is provided for transporting the individualcards held at the recording station in a direction orthogonal to thecard transport path to a ready station wherein the individual cards areengaged by the card transporting unit. The controller causes theindividual cards to be held at the ready station in a stationaryposition prior to engagement by the card transporting mechanism andthereafter the card transporting mechanism is activated to cause thecard located at the ready station to engage the card transporting unitat a reference horizontal position. The ready station lies in a thirdvertical plane and a mechanism is provided for forcing the card form thesecond plane into the third plane when the mechanism for transportingthe card held at the recording station to the ready station has reachedthe ready station.

The system described above further includes storage for storing datarecords for each card to be embossed and recorded, the data record ofeach card to be recorded on each of the one or more tracks of themagnetic recording medium of each card being comprised of one or morealphanumeric characters. The recording mechanism is coupled to thestorage for storing data records to provide a source of digitallyencoded characters to be recorded on the one or more tracks and acomparison of the characters which have been recorded with thecharacters which were desired to be recorded to permit verification ofaccuracy of the recording of the one or more tracks. The controllercauses each card to have the one or more tracks recorded with digitallyencoded characters stored in the storage for storing as the recordingmechanism is moved in the forward direction, the characters recorded onthe one or more tracks to be played back as the recording mechanism ismoved in the reverse direction and compared with the characters storedin the storage for storing which were desired to be recorded. When thecomparison between the recorded characters and the characters which weredesired to be recorded is not a match, the controller causes theembossing units to be disabled when the card transporting unittransports the card by the plurality of card embossing units or,alternatively, when the comparison between the recorded characters andthe characters which were desired to be recorded is not a match, thecontroller activates the recording mechanism to again record the card inwhich all of the desired characters were not recorded and again comparethe recorded characters and the characters that were desired to berecorded.

The system further includes a detector for detecting when the magnetichead assembly moves past a reference position on a card located at therecording station during motion in the forward direction, a pulsegenerator for generating clock pulses for use by the recording mechanismwhich are used to provide the required bit densities; a counterresponsive to the means for detecting when the head moves past areference position and to the pulse generator for counting apredetermined number of pulses after the reference position on the cardhas been detected to identify the point where the first bit of thedigitally encoded information of each of the tracks is to be recorded;and the recording mechanism being responsive to the counter to initiatethe recording of the digitally encoded information upon the countreaching the predetermined count. A movable member carries aphotodetector for detecting the reference position on the card, thephotodetector being movable between a position that is withdrawn fromthe reference position to the reference position; and a mechanism formoving the movable member in unison with the recording head when thephotodetector moves between the withdrawn position and the referenceposition. The mechanism for moving includes a spring for biasing themovable member in contact with a portion of the head mechanism duringmovement of the photodetector between the withdrawn position and thereference position and a stop for limiting the travel of thephotodetector from contacting an edge of a card at the recordingstation. The movable member includes a movable element connected to themovable member which has an adjustable position parallel to thedirection of travel of the head assembly for limiting the travel of thephotocell detector in the forward direction.

An embossing system for embossing blank cards having two sides with aplurality of vertically separated horizontally disposed lines on whichcharacters are to be embossed with at least one line being embossed withcharacters of a first pitch and at least one line being embossed withcharacters of a second pitch on the first side and a line having one onthe pitches being indent printed of the second side in accordance withthe invention includes a card supply mechanism for feeding blank cardsto be embossed and indent printed; a card transporting mechanism forreceiving blank cards to be embossed and indent printed from the cardsupply mechanism and for transporting the cards received from the cardsupply mechanism along a card transport path to a plurality of separateembossing positions and to a position where embossing is completed; aplurality of card embossing units and a card indent printing unit eachdisposed at a separate one of the embossing positions disposed along thecard transport path, each card embossing unit and card printing unitbeing vertically positioned with respect to the card transport path toemboss and indent print a different one of the horizontally disposedlines of characters on each card, at least one of the lines on the firstside being embossed with a character set of a first pitch, at least oneof the lines on the first side being embossed with a character set of asecond pitch and the line on the second side being indent printed with acharacter set of one of the pitches; a mechanism for driving theplurality of card embossing units and indent printer from a common powersource which applies rotary power to each of the card embossing unitsand indent printer, the indent printer having a single movable elementwhich is cyclically movable between first and second positions, arotatable wheel mounted on a shaft and a fixed anvil between which ablank card to be embossed is moved by the card transporting mechanism,the wheel being a punch wheel carrying male indent printing elements ofeach of the character set printed by the wheel which are movable from aretracted position to a printing position, the indent printing elementsof each of the characters to be indent printed are disposed at differentcircumferential positions around the wheel and a space without an indentprinting element is disposed at a circumferential position which isseparate from the circumferential position of the indent printingelements which is the circumferential position of the wheels when aspace is to be left on a blank card, the movement of the movable membercausing the cyclical movement of the indent printing elements from theretracted position to the indent printing position and back, a shaftencoding mechanism for encoding the circumferential position of thewheel with respect to a reference position and a mechanism for rotatingthe wheel to any one of the circumferential positions in response to acommand to position the wheel for indent printing a particular characteror to leave a blank space; and a controller coupled to the card supplymechanism, the card transporting mechanism and the plurality of cardembossing units for controlling the card supply mechanism to feed blankcards to the card transporting mechanism, the transporting of the cardsreceived by the card transporting mechanism to the separate embossingstations along the transporting path and to the position where embossingis completed and the plurality of card embossing units to emboss theplurality of lines on each blank card. The above described embossingsystem alternatively may have the indent printing unit configured toemboss the indent printing line on the front surface of the card. Thefixed anvil is biased against the first side of the card being indentprinted by the indent printing unit indent printing a line on the secondside opposite the position where the male printing elements indent printthe card. The card transport mechanism transports the card being printedthrough a space containing the axis of rotation of the wheel; and thewheel and fixed anvil are supported by a yoke which extends between thecard transport mechanism.

A method for verifying the accuracy of recording encoded data on one ormore tracks of a magnetic recording medium by a comparison of therecorded data with data which was the source of the data which wasrecorded in accordance with the invention includes storing a data recordof the one or more tracks to be recorded on the recording medium, eachtrack having a plurality of characters with each character being encodedwith a fixed number of bits; calculating a check character as a lastcharacter to be recorded for each of the tracks to be recorded for thedata records; recording the one or more tracks of the magnetic recordingmedium with the encoded characters by relative movement of a magneticrecording mechanism in a first direction with respect to each track,each track being recorded with the check character being recorded afterthe other characters in the track are recorded with a repeating bitpattern being recorded after the check characters; playing back each ofthe one or more characters of the magnetic recording medium by relativemovement of the magnetic recording mechanism with respect to each trackin a second direction opposite to the first direction to produce asequence of played back bits, the bit stream for each track beingshifted through a shift register associated with the track as the bitsare played back with a shift register storing a number of bits equal tothe number of bits for encoding a character for that associated track;comparing as each successive bit is played back from each track thecheck character of that track with the contents of the associated shiftregister until a match is detected with the check character for thattrack; and comparing for each track after a match is detected for eachtrack each played back character with the corresponding storagecharacter for that track to detect any errors in recording. Thecomparison for each track of each played back character with thecorresponding stored character comprises storing in the shift registersuccessive groups of played back characters which follow the checkcharacter; and comparing each character stored in the shift registerwith the corresponding stored character to determine if a match exits.The order of comparison of the played back characters for each of thetracks is opposite the order in which the characters were recorded. Anyfailure to detect a match of the recorded check character of that trackwithin the played back track is stored as an error in the recordingprocess and any errors in the recording of the characters other than thecheck character are also stored as an error in the recording process.

A card transporting system for transporting a plurality of cards whichare to be embossed past a plurality of inline embossing units eachdisposed at a separate embossing position with each card embossing unitbeing vertically positioned with respect to a card transport path toemboss a different one of a plurality of horizontally disposed lines ofcharacters on each card in accordance with the invention includes a cardtransporting channel extending from a ready station along the cardtransport path past each of the plurality of embossing units to adischarge station for conveying cards past each of the plurality ofseparate embossing positions, the card transporting channel comprising afixed guideway for engaging the bottom edge of cards in the channelextending from the ready station along the transport path past each ofthe separate embossing positions for establishing a vertical referenceposition of the cards in the channel with respect to each of theplurality of card embossing units disposed at the embossing positionsand a plurality of vertically movable edge guiding units for engaging atop edge of the card to force the bottom edge of the card into the fixedguideway, a vertically movable edge guiding unit being associated witheach of the card embossing units to force the bottom edge of any cardwithin the channel to the vertical reference position; and a rotatablydriven belt movable in a direction along the card transport path havinga plurality of card edge engaging units each for engaging a blank cardto be embossed which are spaced apart by a uniform distance equal to thespacing between the card embossing units, rotation of the belt causingthe successive card engaging units to engage a card at the ready stationand to move the cards through the card transporting channel to thedischarge station. The fixed guideway is comprised of a plurality ofseparate horizontally disposed guideways for engaging the bottom edge ofcards within the channel which are disposed in a straight line fordefining the vertical reference position of the cards during embossing,a horizontally disposed guideway being positioned on the infeed side anda discharge side along the card transport path for each of the embossingunits and each of the vertically movable edge guiding units has a slotdefined by a top surface for engaging the top edge of the card withdownwardly depending sides extending from opposed edges of the topsurface. Each of the vertically movable card edge guiding units ispivotably mounted to a support member with an axis of rotation parallelto the transport path; and a spring engages the support member and eachof the card edge guiding units for forcing the top surface of each ofthe vertically movable card edge guiding units downward into contactwith the top edge of a card located within the card transportingchannel. The vertically movable card edge guiding units are spaced suchthat each card is continually in contact with the top surface of atleast one of the vertically movable card edge guiding units as it movesthrough the card transporting channel. A pair of vertically movable cardedge guiding units are associated with each of the card embossing units.

A system for sequentially recording a track of a plurality of digitallyencoded characters each encoded with a plurality of bits in a bit streamon a recording medium by movement in a first direction of a recordingand playback mechanism along the recording medium and for verifying thatthe recorded characters were recorded without error by movement of therecording and playback mechanism in a second direction opposite thefirst direction to sequentially playback the bit stream recorded in thetrack in an order opposite to the order of recording in accordance withthe invention includes a mechanism for moving the recording and playbackmechanism in a straight path from a first position to a second positionto cause the track of a plurality of digitally encoded characters to berecorded on the recording medium and for moving the recording andplayback mechanism from the second position back to the first positionto play back the recorded track of digitally encoded characters; amemory for storing the track of characters to be recorded including acheck character as the last character of the track; means fordetermining the check character for the track of characters to berecorded which is recorded as the last character in the track; meansresponsive to the recording and playback mechanism and the memory duringplayback for comparing the played back bit stream bit by bit with thecheck character until a sequence of played back bits identical to thecheck character is found and for comparing after the sequence of playedback bits identical to the check character is found sequentially theplayed back characters with corresponding characters stored in thememory to determine if all the characters were recorded without error.The order of comparison of the played back characters stored in thememory is opposite to the order in which the characters were recorded.If a sequence of bits identical to the check character is not foundduring playback, the entire track is again recorded. If an error isfound in a character within the track other than the check character,the entire track is again recorded. The means for comparing includes ashift register for storing a number of bits equal to the number of bitsfor recording a character on the track which has an input coupled to therecording and playback mechanism and an output with each bit which isinputted causing the discarding of the bit at the output which precededthe inputted bit by a number of bits equal to the number of bits storedby the shift register and wherein the comparison of the played back bitstream to identify the check character is made between the stored checkcharacter and the contents of the shift register as each bit is inputtedand the comparison for each of the played back characters is madebetween a totally new group of bits stored within the register and thecorresponding stored character. The means for comparing during thecomparison of played back characters within the stored characters shiftsa new group of bits equal to the number of bits for encoding a charactereach time a new character is stored with the new group of bits beingdetermined with respect to the first played back bit following the lastbit of the bit pattern in the played back bit stream which is identicalto the check character.

A stacking station for receiving cards, having a first face and a secondface with at least one of the faces having embossed charactersprotruding therefrom, from a transport system which moves the charactersin a straight line in a first plane and placing the cards in a stackwith adjacent cards in the stack being in contact with the first face ofone of the adjacent cards contacting the second face of the other of theadjacent cards in accordance with the invention includes a tray having asurface for receiving a bottom edge of the cards and a side forreceiving a leading edge of the cards to form the stack, the surfacedefining a second plane which is inclined with respect to the firstplane; the card transport system having a mechanism for conveying thecards along the first plane which releases the cards when they move to afirst reference position; the surface of the tray intersecting the firstplane at a second reference position with the surface inclining downwardfrom the second reference position; the first and second referencepositions being displaced from each other by a distance such that morethan one-half of a dimension of the card along the direction of travelof the straight line is past the second reference position when the cardis at the first position whereby the card tips over center so that thebottom edge slides down the incline of the surface of the tray and stopsagainst the side.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1a and 1b respectively illustrate the front face and rear face ofa conventional credit card.

FIG. 2 illustrates the general layout and informational content of thetracks of the magnetic recording medium of a credit card.

FIG. 3 illustrates the layout of the first track of the magneticrecording medium on a credit card.

FIG. 4 illustrates the layout of the second track of the magneticrecording medium on a credit card.

FIG. 5 illustrates the layout of the third track of the recording mediumon a credit card.

FIG. 6 illustrates a schematic view of the processing stations of thepresent invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates a top view of the pickup, recording and readystations of the present invention.

FIG. 8a illustrates a rear elevational view of the pickup, recording andready stations of the present invention.

FIG. 8b illustrates a front elevational view of the pickup and recordingstations of the present invention.

FIG. 8c illustrates a partial rear elevational view of the recording andready stations.

FIG. 8d illustrates an enlarged view of an elevating mechanism at therecording station.

FIG. 9 illustrates a side elevational view of the pickup and elevatingmechanism.

FIG. 10 is a front elevational view of a portion of a card transportunit illustrating two adjacent embossing portions with a detailed viewof the indent printing unit.

FIG. 11 is a top view of the card transport unit.

FIG. 12 is a front elevational view of the top portion of the cardtransport unit.

FIG. 13 is an expanded view of an eccentric mount of a horizontal cardlocating mechanism mounted on the drive belt of the transport unit.

FIG. 14 is a view illustrating the common drive unit for each of theembossers.

FIG. 15 is a view illustrating the timing of the cams which drive theindividual embossing units and indent printing unit.

FIG. 16a and b are a side elevational view of an indent printing unit inaccordance with the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a top view of the indent printing unit in accordance with thepresent invention.

FIG. 18 is a front elevational view of the topping station drive andstacking station.

FIG. 19 is an end view of the topping station.

FIG. 20 is a view illustrating the operation of the stacking station.

FIG. 21 illustrates the processing of the portion of a data record whichis to be embossed and printed as characters.

FIG. 22 illustrates the processing of the portion of a data record whichis to be recorded on the magnetic recording medium.

FIG. 23 illustrates a schematic diagram of the electrical control systemof the present invention.

FIGS. 24(a)-(f) illustrate the preferred controller for the magneticrecording station of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is an improved embossing and recording systemwhich embosses a plurality of lines of alphanumeric characters locatedat least on the front surface of a credit card and magnetically recordsone or more tracks of digitally encoded characters on a magnetic stripelocated on the back surface of the credit card. The invention is furtherusable to emboss promotional cards which do not have the aforementionedmagnetic strip.

FIG. 6 illustrates a perspective view of the stations of an embossingand recording system 30 in accordance with the present invention whichhas an input hopper station 32 having a tray 62 for holding a stack of500 blank cards 54 of 0.030 of an inch thickness to be embossed andrecorded and a spring loaded plate (not illustrated), a magneticrecording station 34 for magnetically recording the tracks of digitallyencoded characters on the magnetic recording medium 22 of the blankcards, five equally spaced in line units with four identical embossingunits 38 being used for embossing the lines 14-18 describes above inconjunction with FIG. 1a of a credit card 10 and the fifth unit 40 beingused for printing indent characters of line 24 described above inconjunction with FIG. 1b or embossing another line like lines 14-18, acard transport unit 42 for conveying the recorded blanks from a readystation through the in line embossers to a topping station 44 whichapplies topping to the embossed characters produced by embossing units38 and a stacking station 46 which collects properly processed anderroneously processed cards in two separate sections of a tray 390. Thetray 390 is of the same general construction as the tray disclosed inSerial No. 820,705. Only the base of the embossing units 38 has beenillustrated. It should be understood that the embossing units 38, unlikethe indent printing unit 40, are located on the far side of cardtransport unit 42. The embossing units 38 are identical to thosedescribed in Serial No. 820,705 and will not be further described indetail. The topping station 44 is identical to that described in SerialNo. 820,705 with the exception that the topping station card transportunit 352 of the present invention moves the cards into and out of thetopping station 44 with only a capstan-pinch roller drive 354, 356 and358 that applies the driving force to the rear face of the cards. Thestructure of card transport unit 42 has been simplified from thatdescribed in Serial No. 820,705. The detailed construction of themagnetic recording station 34 is described below in conjunction withFIGS. 7-8. The detailed construction of the card transport unit 42 isdescribed below in conjunction with FIGS. 10-13. The card transport unit42 has a belt 48 having a plurality of evenly spaced card locating pins50, which project orthogonal to the direction of motion of the cardspast the embossing units 38, and indent printing unit 40 having a centerto center spacing equal to the center to center spacing of the embossingunits and indent printing unit and which function to establish thehorizontal reference position of each card in the card transport unitduring embossing. The relationship of the center to center spacing ofthe card locating pins which were carried by card gripping unitsattached to a belt and embossing units was an objective of the Model1803 described above which in practice was not achievable. The cardtransport unit 42 is moved by a DC motor with shaft encoder 52 in unitsof distance equal to 1/p₁ p₂, wherein p₁ and p₂ are respectively thepitches (characters per inch) of the OCR line 14 and alphanumeric (A/N)lines 16, 18 and 24 of respective embossing units 38 and indent printingunit 40, under the control of a control program of a master controllerwhich is described below in conjunction with FIG. 23. The preferred formof the control program of the present invention is similar to thecontrol program of the master controller disclosed in Serial No.820,705. The belt 48 is moved, in integer multiples of the unit distance1/p₁ p₂, between the embossing position of one or more currentcharacters which have just been embossed and printed and the one or moreclosest next characters to be embossed by the motor 52 under analgorithm programmed in the master controller. The algorithm forcalculating the position of the closest next character is identical tothat disclosed in Serial No. 820,705. The card transport unit 42 has achannel 54 which guides the cards in line past the indent printing unit40 and embossing units 38. The channel 54, which guides the top andbottom edges of the individual cards during embossing, establishes thevertical reference position of the cards in the card transport unit 42for embossing. The location of the individual lines of embossing 14-18is established by vertical adjustment of the individual embossing unitswith respect to the channel 54.

The function of the processing stations of the present invention isdescribed with reference to FIG. 6. Individual cards are picked from apickup station 66 located at the end of the stack of cards 64 held inthe hopper station 32 by a card pickup mechanism 60 described below indetail with reference to FIGS. 7-9 and transported to the right to themagnetic recording station 34. The card pickup mechanism 60 has a block68 carrying an edge (element 69 in FIG. 8b) for stripping a single cardat a time from the stack of cards. A reciprocating mechanism 70 movesthe picked card along a guide bar 71 in a first vertical plane through agate 73 to the magnetic recording station 34. A stripper illustrated inFIGS. 7 and 8, is attached to the block 68, which causes the card at themagnetic recording station 34 to be separated from the block and movedinto a recess, located in a second vertical plane, where the card isheld to be recorded with the one or more tracks of digitally encodedcharacters. At the recording station 34 up to three tracks are recordedwith digitally encoded characters in accordance with the tracksdescribed with reference to FIGS. 2-5. The recording of the tracks 1, 2,3 is by forward movement of the head assembly 122 to the left andplayback for verification is by movement of the head assembly in theopposite direction back to the initial position. The processing ofinformation during recording is controlled by a pair of pulsegenerators, described below with reference to FIG. 8a, which producepulse trains to control the bit density of recording along the tracks.The location of the beginning of each of the tracks is controlled by thedetection of an edge of a card to be recorded and the counting of apredetermined number of pulses occurring immediately thereafter whichinitiates the recording process. The head assembly 122 is moved alongthe guide bar 71 by a DC motor with shaft encoder 126. The length of theforward and reverse strokes of the head assembly 122 is preciselycontrolled by measurement of the distances in units of distance of theDC motor and shaft encoder 126. The recording station controller isprogrammed to precisely control the length of the forward and reversestrokes to be equal. The counting of a predetermined total number ofpulses from the shaft encoder 126 is used by the recording stationcontroller to control the starting and stopping of the head assembly 122for the forward and reverse strokes. Playback is for the purpose ofverification of the accuracy of recording process by comparison of thecharacters actually recorded in the tracks with those which were desiredto be recorded. The recording station controller is described below withreference to FIG. 24. After verification is complete, the card iselevated from the recording station 34 by a card elevating mechanism 160to the ready station 161 of the transport unit 42 located in a thirdvertical plane. The individual cards are engaged at the ready station161 by the card transport unit 42. At the ready station 161 a pair ofspring members 162 force the card into a recess located in the thirdvertical plane. The belt 48 of the card transport unit 42 is driven bythe DC motor and shaft encoder 52 to cause one of the pins 50 to engagethe trailing edge of the card at the ready station 161 to move theindividual cards into channel 54 where the individual lines of embossing14-18 and 24 are embossed and printed. The encoded and embossed cardsare moved to the topping station 44 where topping is applied in themanner described in Serial No. 820,705. The encoded, embossed and toppedcards are finally conveyed to the stacking station 46. The toppingstation 44 has a topper drive unit 352 which has three pairs of powerdriven rollers 354, 356 and 358 which drive the individual cards fromthe last embossing unit 38 to the stacking station 46. As each cardleaves the nip of the last pair of rollers 358, it falls over apex 402downward onto the surface 400 of tray 390 which is in a different planethan the horizontal plane of the transport path through the printingunit 40, embossing units 38 and topping station 44. Gate 396 is movablelongitudinally along the tray 390 under the control of the mastercontroller to collect properly processed cards in section 392 anderroneously processed cards in section 394 of the tray 390.

The preferred embodiment of the embossing and recording system 30 hasprovision for embossing all forms of conventional credit cards having upto 4 lines of alphanumeric characters with at least two differentpitches, with one pitch being 10 selectable OCR readable numericcharacters, 39 selectable alphanumeric characters which are not machinereadable of the other pitch, one line of printing of numeric charactersof the other pitch, and magnetically recording three tracks of digitallyencoded characters. Alternatively, promotional cards with up to fivelines of embossing may be made. A single line on a card is embossed orindent printed with characters of a single pitch.

The major components of the embossing system 30 are controlled bymicroprocessor driven controllers. The electrical control circuitry forthe major components is controlled by a master controller having aprogrammed microprocessor with a control program similar to thatdescribed in Serial No. 820,705. The master controller is describedgenerally below with reference to FIG. 23. The control of the individualembossing units 38 is identical to that described in Serial No. 820,705with the present invention having two additional in line embossing unitsto permit embossing and printing of fourth and fifth lines. While thedesign of the indent printing unit 40 is different from the remainingembossing units 38, the control of printing of individual indentcharacters is identical to that disclosed in Serial No. 820,705. Thealgorithm used to control the card transport unit 42 for moving the cardto the closest next character of the indent printing unit 40 is commonwith embossing units 38. The processing of individual data records,which are the source of the characters to be embossed, indent printed,and recorded on recording medium 22, is described in detail below inconjunction with FIGS. 22 and 23. The magnetic recording stationcontroller is described in detail below in conjunction with FIGS.24(a)-(f).

Pickup Mechanism 60

FIGS. 6-9 illustrate the detailed assembly of the pickup mechanism 60 ofthe present invention. At the pickup station 66 an individual card isseparated from the stack of cards 64 by the pickup mechanism 60 andtransported to the recording station 34. The individual cards extendthrough an opening, not illustrated, where they are engaged by a knifeedge 69 (FIG. 8b), which is part of a block 68. The block 68 ispivotably secured to a reciprocating mechanism 70 which is described indetail below. A card stripper 110 is pivotably mounted to the block 68for stripping a card from engagement from the knife edge 69 when thereciprocating mechanism has moved to the recording station. The stripper110 has a stop 111 which limits counterclockwise rotation about pivotpoint 111' which is caused by torsion spring (not illustrated) and isbifurcated into two sections which respectively engage top and bottomsections of the card to insure that the card is positively pushed intothe recess 104. The card stripper 110 is activated by a stop 112 whichcauses it to pivot in a clockwise direction to force the card from afirst vertical plane defined by wall 106 into a recess 104 within asecond vertical plane defined by a second wall 108 which receives thecard for recording. The stop 112 is adjustable in location to permit theactivation point of the stripper 110 to be varied. Only one of thebifurcations of the card stripper 110 strikes the stop 112. Thereciprocating mechanism 70 has a first arm 72 having a first end 74which carries the block 68 and a second end 76 which is pivotallymounted to a second pivotable arm 78 at a first end 80. The second end82 of the second pivotable arm is pivoted about a fixed axis of rotation84. A third arm 86 has a first end 88 which is pivotably attached to anintermediate point of the first arm 72. The second end 90 of the thirdarm 86 is pivotably attached to a crank mechanism 92 which is rotatablydriven by the shaft 94 of electric motor 96 which supplies the power formoving the cards from the pickup station 66 to the recording station 34.The block 68 is guided by guide bar 71. A disk 98, in conjunction withphotodetector 100, provides a signal to the master controller toindicate when a complete cycle of the pickup mechanism 60 has beencompleted which consists of the reciprocation of the reciprocatingmechanism 70 as illustrated in FIG. 7 to move a card to the right to therecording station 34 and back to the pickup station 66 for picking upanother card. The photodetector 100 is of a conventional type which hasa light transmitter which transmits light across a gap to a lightreceiver. The photodetector 100 produces a first level output when thelight is blocked by an opaque object intercepting the light in the gapand a second level signal when the light is received by the receiver.The photodetector 100 initially rests in the position as illustratedwherein the receiver senses light passing from the transmitter throughthe notch 102 in the disk 98 to produce a high level signal. The motor96 causes rotation of the disk 98 in a counterclockwise manner whichsuccessively produces a dark low level signal and then ultimately a highlevel signal caused by the passage of the leading edge of the notchthrough the gap between the transmitter and receiver of thephotodetector. When the leading edge of the notch is sensed duringrotation as a high level signal by the master controller, the mastercontroller shuts off the motor 96 to park the reciprocating mechanism 70in the position as illustrated. The individual card at the end of thestack of cards 64 is initially moved to the right to the point where theleft-hand edge of the card falls into the recess 104 defined by the edgebetween surfaces 106 and 108. A more detailed explanation of themovement of the card from the first vertical plane defined by wall 106into the second vertical plane defined by wall 108 in which the recess104 lies is described below in conjunction with FIG. 8d. The bottom edgeof the recess is the top edge 183 of the vertical lifting member 178 ofthe card elevating mechanism 160. The recess 104 is the pocket withinwhich the card rests at the recording station 34. The spring biasedpivotable card stripping member 110 carried by the block 68 appliesforce to cause the card to drop into the recess 104.

Magnetic Recording Station 34

The magnetic recording station 34 is illustrated in FIGS. 6-8. Themagnetic recording station 34 performs the recording of the one or moretracks of digitally encoded characters described above with reference toFIGS. 3-5 and the verification that the correct characters were in factrecorded on the magnetic recording medium 22 of an individual card. Thehead assembly 122 is guided by guide bar 71 which is common to thepickup mechanism 60 described above. The head assembly 122 is drivenreciprocally from the position as illustrated to the left and back by acable 124. The cable 124 is driven by a DC motor 126 with shaft encoderwhich is of conventional construction. A drive pulley 128, which hasseveral wraps of the cable 124 wrapped thereabouts, is driven by thedrive shaft of the DC motor 126. The cable 124 is in the form of anendless loop with the other end wrapped around a pulley 130 which drivesa first pulse source 132 for producing one of the two clock signalsnecessary to record the digital data on the tracks 1-3 described abovewith reference to FIGS. 3-5 and a second pulse source 134 for producingthe other clock signal necessary for recording the remaining tracks ofdigital data. The location of the first bit of the first characters ineach of the tracks 1, 2 and 3 is determined by counting a predeterminednumber of pulses produced by one of the pulse sources 132 or 134 afterthe leading edge of the card has been detected by a photodetector 504described below with reference to FIG. 8b which is moved in unison withthe head assembly 122 over part of the forward stroke of the headassembly. The counter is implemented within the hardware of therecording station controller described below with reference to FIG. 24.The clocking of the recording process is described generally below withreference to FIG. 22. The recording station controller also includes aprogrammed counter which counts a predetermined number of pulses of theDC motor with shaft encoder 126 measured from its rest position asillustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8a to signal the correct stopping place ofthe forward stroke of the magnetic head 136. Thereafter, the recordingstation controller reverses the direction of the DC motor and theprogrammed counter counts the same number of pulses produced by the DCmotor with shaft encoder 126 which were counted for the forward movementof the head assembly during recording to cause the head assembly 122 topark in the rest position. Once the programmed counter of the recordingstation controller counts, on the return stroke, the predeterminednumber of pulses produced by the DC motor with encoder 126, whichsignals the return of the head assembly 122 to the rest position, themaster recording station controller undertakes the activation of thecard elevating mechanism 160 which is described below. At the recordingstation 34, a card positioning mechanism 138 establishes a verticalreference position during both the recording and playback strokes of therecording mechanism 122. The card positioning mechanism 138 has astraight section of wire 139 which is rotatably mounted within apertureswithin the downwardly depending sides of member 141. The cardpositioning mechanism 138 causes the card to be biased downward andtoward the front into contact with the top edge 181 of the cardelevating mechanism 160. A cam 140 is provided to the right of the headassembly 122 for deactivating the card positioning mechanism 138. A balltype cam follower 142 is attached to a bent end section (notillustrated) of wire 139. Wire 139 also has another bent end sectionwhich has a bevelled end, not illustrated, which contacts the top edgeof the card to force it inward and downward when the head assembly 122is positioned to the left to the point where the cam follower 142 is notengaging the top section 148 of the cam 140. A spring 150 is attached atone end to vertically extending wire 152 and at the other end to an arm153 extending orthogonally from the straight section of wire 139 toapply torque to the card positioning mechanism which causes the beveledend to force a card inward toward wall 108 and downward toward thebottom of recess 104 when the cam follower 142 is not engaging the topsection 148 of the cam 140. As stated above, the card positioningmechanism 138 is necessary to ensure that the card is in the propervertical position for recording and playback of the recorded tracks ofinformation during the verification process. The spring 162 retains theencoded cards in a vertical reference plane as illustrated in FIG. 8a.

FIG. 8b is a front view of the pickup station 32 and recording station34 illustrating a card edge detector 500, moved in unison with the headassembly 122 between a withdrawn position as illustrated to a referenceposition when rotated clockwise from the illustrated position, fordetecting when the head assembly passes a reference position on card. Asdescribed above, the detection of the reference position (leading edge)of the card at the recording station 34 initiates the counting by thehardware counter of the recording station controller of a predeterminednumber of pulses produced by either pulse generator 132 or 134 to markthe recording position of the first bit of the first character of eachof the tracks. The card detector 500 has a movable member 502 pivoted atone end about pivot point 503 and carrying a photodetector 504 of thesame type as photodetector 100 discussed above. A spring 506 biases themember 502 to rotate in a clockwise position to cause an extension 508of the member to contact an extension 509 of the head assembly 122. Astop 510 limits the travel of the member in the clockwise direction. Thestop 510 engages a bolt 512 which is threadably received within theextension 508. The bolt 512 is movable in a direction parallel to thedirection of motion of the head assembly 122. As the head assembly 122moves to the right in FIG. 8b, the head 514 of bolt 512 contacts thestop 510 to limit the travel of the photodetector 504. The bolt 512 isadjusted to limit the travel of the photodetector 504 to a point wherethe card intercepts the light beam transmitted by the transmitter of thephotodetector but does not contact the edge of the card.

Card Elevating Mechanism 160

FIGS. 6-9 illustrate the detailed construction of the card elevatingmechanism 160 which functions to lift the card 10 from the recordingstation 34 to the ready station 161 which was discussed above withreference to FIG. 6. As was discussed above with regard to the recordingstation 34, the activation of the card elevating mechanism 160 is notinitiated until the programmed counter of the recording stationcontroller has counted a number of pulses produced by the DC motor andshaft encoder 126 signifying that the head assembly 122 has moved backto its rest position after the completion of the playing back of therecorded information on the tracks 1, 2 and 3. The card elevatingmechanism 160 lifts the card, which has been previously recorded andplayed back at the recording station 34, vertically upward to where itis forced by the pair of bent spring members 162 forward into a thirdvertical plane defined by wall 159 at the ready station 161 which is thebeginning of the channel 54 of the card transport unit 42. The elevationof the card from the recording station 34 to the ready station 161 iscaused by a reciprocating mechanism 164 which is powered by an electricmotor 166 which is controlled by the master controller. The drive shaft168 of the electric motor 166 is connected to a crank 170. The crank 170is rotatably connected to the first end 172 of arm 174. The second end176 is rotatably connected to a bifurcated vertical lifting member 178which extends upward from the point of attachment to the second end 176of arm 174 to the card encoding station. A pair of card bearings 177guide the vertical lifting member 178.

With reference to FIG. 8d, the vertical lifting member has a pair ofhorizontally disposed surfaces 181 which are located about 0.015 inchesbelow the bottom surface 183 of the recess 104. Each of the bifurcationshas an extension 185 projecting upward through an aperture 187 in thebottom surface 183. The right hand extension 185 has a card deflectingsurface 189 which contacts the leading edge of the card beingtransported by the pickup mechanism 60. The deflecting surface bows theleading edge of the card toward surface 108 of recess 104. Each of theextensions 185 is joined together by a horizontal connecting piece 191.The vertical surface 193 of the horizontal connecting piece holds thecard within the second vertical plane of recess 104 by preventing thecard from tipping toward the rear of the system. The vertical wall 108extending from the recording station 34 to the ready station 161 holdsthe card within the second vertical plane of recess 104 from fallingtoward the front of the system.

The control of the electric motor 166 is similar to the control of theelectric motor 96 of the card pickup mechanism 60 described above. Anotch 180 of disk 182, which is attached to the output shaft of electricmotor 166, is sensed by photodetector 184 to produce the control signalwhich is monitored by the master controller to control the motor. Thephotodetector 184 is identical to the photodetectors described above.The master controller activates the motor 166 after the head assembly122 has returned to the park position as described above to lift thecard from the recording station 34 to the ready station 161. Rotation ofthe disk 182 counterclockwise, as illustrated in FIG. 8c, initiallycauses the photodetector 184 output level to change when the notch 180rotates past the light beam path between the transmitter and receiver toproduce a signal state which is sensed by the master controller. As therotation of the motor 166 continues, the notch 180 rotates back to apoint of intercepting the light beam between the transmitter andreceiver which causes a change in signal state of the photodetector 184which is sensed by the master controller. The master controller, uponsensing the rotation of the notch back into the field of view of thelight beam of photodetector 184, commands the motor 166 to stop whichcompletes the elevation of the card to the ready station 161 and thereturn of the vertical lifting member 178 back to the position asillustrated in FIG. 8c. The pair of spring members 162 force the cardfrom the second vertical plane of the recess 104 at the recordingstation 34 to the third vertical plane 159 (FIG. 7) of the ready station161 out of engagement with the vertical lifting member 178 when thevertical lifting member has approached its highest point.

Card Transport Unit 42

FIG. 10 illustrates a front view of the transport unit 42 spanning twoembossing positions with the indent printer 40 being illustrated indetail. The embossing unit 38 which is located to the left of the indentprinter 40 has been omitted. The major parts of the transport unit arethe belt 48 and its associated drive which is discussed in detail belowin conjunction with FIGS. 11 and 12 and the channel 54 which guides thecards in a fixed horizontal and vertical reference position duringembossing. The attachment mechanism to and spacing adjustment mechanismof the card locating pins 50 with respect to the belt 48 is described inmore detail below in conjunction with FIG. 13. The belt 48 has aplurality of evenly spaced card locating pins 50 which establish thehorizontal reference position of successive cards along the channel 54.The card locating pins 50 have a center to center spacing which is thesame as the center to center spacing of the individual embossing units38 and indent printing unit 40. In one embodiment of the invention, thedesired center to center spacing of embossing units 38 and indentprinting unit 40 and the card locating pins 50 is 4 inches with thespacing between pins having a tolerance of ±0.005 inches.

As illustrated in FIGS. 10 and 16b, the channel 54 has a fixed lowervertical reference surface 192 of approximately one-sixteenth of an inchin width which is defined by a guideway 194 preferably milled with aslot of approximately one-sixteenth of an inch in depth, which ismounted in line on the infeed side 196 and outfeed side 198 of eachembossing unit 38 and indent printer 40 and a pair of verticallypivotable guideways 210 associated with each embossing unit 36 andindent printer 40 which apply a downward force to the top edge of a cardmoving through the channel to force the bottom edge of the card into theslot. The guideway 194 has a front vertically projecting surface 200 anda rear vertically projecting surface 202 which projects upwardapproximately one-sixteenth of an inch in height from bottom surface192. The guideway 194 is attached between a front plate 206 and a rearplate 208 and spans the channel 54. Each pivoted guideway 210 has ahorizontal surface 212 which contacts the top edge of cards movingthrough the channel 54, a front downwardly projecting surface 214 whichextends from surface 212 and a rear downwardly projecting surface 216which extends from surface 212. The pivot axis 218 of each verticallypivotable guideway 210 extends parallel to the transport path of thecards in the channel 54. The pivot axis 218 of the vertically pivotableguideways 210 is secured to the rear plate 219. A compressed spring 220which is located within recess 222 of block 223, forces each associatedpivoted guideway 210 downward. The compression of the spring 222 appliesa downward force to top surface 224 to cause the horizontal surface 212to force the top edge of cards downward into contact with the bottomsurface 204 of the milled guideway 194. The force preferably is betweentwo to four ounces for each of the vertically pivoted guideways 210,which ensures that sufficient friction exists between the top and bottomsurfaces of the card and the surfaces 192 and 212 to maintain propercontact of the trailing edge of the card with the card locating pins 50.Approximately 0.010 inches clearance may be provided between the bottomsurface 225 of block 223 and the top surface 224 of the pivotedguideway. Approximately 0.010 inches clearance may be provided betweenthe bottom surface 227 of the vertically pivotable guideway. Transportunit 42 (FIG. 6) is pivotably mounted to permit the vertically pivotedguideways to be pivoted clockwise as illustrated in FIG. 16b. Thevertically pivotable guideways 210 are spaced along the card transportpath so that all cards located at embossing units 38 and the indentprinting unit 40 are always engaged by a pair of pivoted guideways.

FIGS. 11 and 12 illustrate belt 48, card location pins 50 and the drivemechanism including the electric motor and shaft encoder 52 for the cardtransport unit 42. The movement of the belt 48 by the electric motorshaft encoder 52 is controlled in the same manner as in Ser. No.820,705. As explained above, the belt is moved in increments of 1/p₁ p₂wherein p₁ and p₂ are the pitches of the characters being embossed bythe respective lines of embossing or indent printing. The mastercontroller continually calculates the belt position of the closest nextcharacter(s) of any pitch, moves the belt thereto and activates one ormore embossing units to emboss the closest next character in a manneridentical to that disclosed Ser. No. 820,705. The toothed belt is drivenby a gear 226 attached to the drive shaft of the DC motor and shaftencoder 52. An idler gear 228 supports the other end of the belt 48. Thecard transport unit 42 is pivoted about axis 233.

FIG. 13 is an expanded view of FIG. 12 illustrating the details of theeccentric mount 230 of the card location pins 50 within belt 48. Therecess 232 is contained within a semicircular portion 231 which extendsupward from the outside surface 234 of the belt 48. The inside surface236 has teeth which mesh with the gears 226 and 228 to provide apositive drive with electric motor 52. The belt 48 may be made fromrubber, plastic or other materials. The individual card location pins 50have a first section 238 rotatably mounted within recess 232 and asecond section 240 having an axis which is eccentric to the axis of thefirst section 238. The axis of second section 240 is required to be onlya few thousands of an inch eccentric to the axis of first section 238 toprovide the proper tolerance of 4±0.005 inches center to center spacingbetween the card locating pins 50.

Indent Printing Unit 40

FIGS. 10 and 14-17 illustrate the preferred embodiment of the indentprinting unit 40 of the present invention. The indent printing unit 40differs from the embossing units disclosed in Ser. No. 820,705 in havinga fixed anvil assembly 280 instead of activated female die characterelements which eliminates half of the moving parts found in theaforementioned system. The indent printing unit 40 is activated by a camhaving one lobe driven synchronously at twice the rotational velocity ofthe embossing units 38 which are driven by a two lobed cam.

FIG. 14 illustrates the common drive unit 242 for each of the in lineembossing units 38 and indent printing unit 40. Each embossing unit 38has a vertically extending drive shaft 244 to which is connected a gearwheel 246. The indent printing unit 40 has a vertically extending driveshaft 250 to which is connected a gear wheel 252. The gear wheel 252 isone-half the diameter of the gear wheels to cause the rotationalvelocity of gear wheel 252 to be precisely twice that of gear wheel 246.The belt 248 wraps around an idler wheel 254 after it leaves contactwith the last gear wheel 248 prior to engaging gear wheel 252. The widthof the gear wheels 246 and 252 is chosen to be substantially greaterthan the width of the belt 248 which permits the vertical position ofthe individual embossing units 38 and indent printing unit 40 to beadjusted without requiring vertical adjustment of the common drive. Thegear wheels 246 and 252 are provided with sufficient mass so that theirrotational inertia powers their associated units without requiring themotor 258 to have a power output necessary to supply the high powernecessary only during embossing. A belt 250 couples the motor output toa drive 259 which drives belt 248. The requisite inertia of the gearwheel 252 is much smaller than that for gear wheels 246 for the reasonthat the forces during indent printing are much smaller.

FIG. 15 illustrates a timing diagram of the cams which drive theindividual embossing units 38 and indent printing unit 40. The diagramhas been simplified to omit the cam drive for the third and fourthembossing units which are identical to the illustrated second embossingunit. One of the omitted third and fourth cam drives has a disc attachedthereto identical to the third embossing unit illustrated in FIG. 23 ofSer. No. 820,705 for generating RSHUT and ESHUT signals which are thetiming signals used by the master controller for synchronouslycontrolling the embossing units 38, indent printing unit 40 and cardtransport unit 42. The timing of the first embossing unit 38 isidentical to the timing of the first embossing unit described in Ser.No. 820,705 and the timing of the second through fourth embossing units38 is identical to the timing of the second embossing unit described inSer. No. 820,705. The drive cams 260 for the embossing units 38 have apair of diametrically spaced lobes 262 which simultaneously engagefollowers 264. Each follower 264 activates an arm (not illustrated) torespectively drive punch and die embossing elements in the mannerdescribed in Ser. No. 820,705. The drive cam 266 for the indentembossing unit 40 has a single lobe 268 which drives a follower 270which powers the punch indent printing element in a manner describedbelow. As described above in conjunction with FIG. 14, the rotationalvelocity of the cam 266 is precisely twice that of the cam 260. Becausethe rotational velocity of cam 266 is twice that of cams 260, the singlelobe 268 drives cam follower 270 synchronously and in phase with theother 10 pitch embossing units such as the second embossing unitillustrated in FIG. 15.

FIGS. 10 and 16-17 illustrate respectively front elevational view, anend elevational view, and a top view of the indent printing unit 40which has one-half the moving parts of the embossing units 38 which areidentical to those disclosed in Ser. No. 820,705. The four main parts ofthe indent embossing unit 40 are the stationary anvil assembly 280, themovable punch wheel assembly 282, DC motor and shaft encoder 284 fordriving the punch wheel assembly to its correct position for indentprinting and the power drive 286 for punch wheel assembly.

The anvil assembly 280 is connected to the punch wheel assembly 282 by ayoke 288. The yoke 288 is attached to a pair of vertical support posts290. The height of the indent printing unit 40 is adjusted by thevertical point of attachment to the vertical support posts 290 which maybe by any conventional attachment mechanism. A jackscrew (notillustrated) is provided for setting the desired height. A fixed anvil292 is attached to the end of a member 294 which is slidably receivedwithin a cylindrical bore within attachment member 296. The forward mostposition of the anvil 292 (with respect to face 12 of a card) is fixedwith respect to attachment member 296 by a a pair of nuts 298 which arelocked together. The face 300 of the anvil 292 supports the frontsurface 12 of the card 10 being printed by the indent printer 40 so thatthe front surface 12 of the card is not substantially deformed. A spring301 determines the degree of penetration of the individual indentprinting elements 324 during printing. For a typical credit card, thegap between face 300 and the farthest extension of the indent printingelements 324 is preferably set to approximately 0.026 inches. With thatsetting, a spring is chosen with a preload which may range, for example,from 50 to 90 lbs. When the indent element 324 impacts the rear face ofthe card, the male face penetrates the surface driving the ribbon 325into the indentation until the force exceeds the preload at which pointthe face 300 is deflected to limit the depth of penetration. The initialgap setting is changed for cards of different thickness. The springpreload is changed to vary the depth of penetration.

The power drive 286 is described as follows. The belt 248 drives gearwheel 252. The gear wheel 252 has a cylindrical section 302 attached toits bottom to provide rotational inertia to supply power duringprinting. As explained above, this mass is less than that of the gearwheels 246 for the embossing unit 38. The drive shaft 250 is journaledin an extension 304 of the yoke 288. The top of the drive shaft of thedrive shaft is attached to drive cam 266. A cam follower 270 isjournaled in a bifurcated part 308 of punch member 306.

The mounting structure of the punch member is described as follows. Thepunch member 306 is connected to block 313 by a slanted retainer 310which is received within a slot 312. The block 313 has a cylindricalbore 315 which slidably receives rod 317 to permit the block toreciprocate back and forth as the cam 266 activates the bifurcated camfollower 270. A pair of guides 319 are located on either side of adownward depending member (not illustrated) located directly below thebore 315 which engages the vertical sides of the member to preventrotation of the block. Block 321 is separate from block 313 to permitadjustment of the degree of extension of the punch member 306 by meansof retainer 310. A pair of stretched springs 314 are attached at one endto the extension 304 of the yoke 288 and at the other end to a rod 316extending through the punch member 306 orthogonal to the direction ofmotion during indent printing. During each rotation of the drive cam266, the lobe 268 contacts the cam follower 270 to cause it to beadvanced to engage a punch indent printing element 324 to cause anindent character to be printed or to leave a blank space depending onthe rotational position of the punch wheel assembly 282 as describedbelow which is commanded by the indent printer unit controller. Afterthe lobe 268 rotates past the cam follower 270, the punch member 306 iswithdrawn from the printing position to the position as illustrated bythe force exerted by the stretched springs 314.

A ribbon mechanism 327, which is conventionally used in the industry toapply highlighting to the indentation of the characters to make thecharacters visible, has not been illustrated in detail for the reasonthat it does not form part of the present invention. The controller forthe indent printer activates the ribbon mechanism 327 to advance freshribbon 325 for each new character to be indent printed.

The punch wheel assembly 282 is described as follows. The punch wheelassembly 282 has a wheel 318 which is journaled in the yoke 288. Thewheel 318 is comprised of a pair of spaced apart circular plates 320which have axially aligned apertures 322 through which the punch maletype indent printing elements 324 extend. The end 326 of punch member308 forces the printing elements 324 from a retracted position to anextended position into the surface of the card 10 when the lobe 268engages the cam follower 270. A spring and plastic block (notillustrated) of the type illustrated in FIG. 13 of Ser. No. 820,705holds each indent printing element 324 in a normally retracted position.A retractor 328 is attached to the top surface 330 of the end 328 of thepunch member. The retractor 328 has a curved end which positivelyengages a projection 332 located on top of each punch element to insureproper withdrawal. In the embodiment as illustrated, a total of 10numerical characters "0-9" and a blank space are provided at equallyspaced intervals about the periphery of the wheel 318. The blank spaceperforms the same function as the blank space in the embossing unitsdisclosed in Ser. No. 820,705 in providing a circular position of thewheel 318 where no embossing will take place during the EMBOSS period ofthe ESHUT signal. The horizontally extending guideway 194 is disposedbetween a front plate 336 and back plate 338.

The motor drive and shaft encoder 284 are described as follows. A DCmotor with shaft encoder 340 rotates wheel 318 to position the desiredcharacter or a blank space in line with the end 326 of the punch member308 under the control of the embosser controller during theaforementioned MOVE period of the ESHUT period. The embossing of acharacter takes place during the subsequent EMBOSS period of the ESHUTperiod. A drive 342 couples a drive sprocket 344 of the motor 340 to adrive sprocket 344 of wheel 318. The control of the motor 340 andpositioning of the wheel of the indent printing unit 40 is identical tothe control of the embossing units disclosed in Ser. No. 820,705.

The master controller has a subroutine for reversing the order of thecharacters in the data record to be embossed by the indent printer 40 sothat they are printed in the correct order. The routine is performedprior to transmission of the encoded characters to the controller of theindent printing unit 40.

Topping Station 44 and Stacking Station 46

The topping station 44 is similar to that described in Ser. No. 820,705with the differences residing in the drive unit 352 for transporting thecards through the topping station and the timing of the activation ofthe drive unit of the topper with respect to the card transport unit 42.The topping station 44 applies a plastic topping from a polyester foilbacking in the same manner as in Ser. No. 820,705.

The drive unit 352 for the topping station 44 is described withreference to FIGS. 18-20. The drive unit 352 has three pairs of rollers354, 356 and 358 which sequentially engage a card 10 as it is driventhrough the topping station 44 between the discharge point 360 of theembossing units 38 to the stacking station 46. A top guide 357establishes the upper vertical position with respect to the upper edgeof the card. The bottom edge of the card rides on surface 359. Each pairof rollers 354, 356 and 358 has a power driven capstan 354', 356' and358' and an idler pinch roller 354", 356" and 358". The pinch rollers354", 356" and 358" force a card against the associated capstans 354",356' and 358' to drive it through the topper 44. An electric motordrives a transmission 362 which applies power to the capstans 354', 356'and 358'. The transmission 362 includes a belt 364 driving pulleys 366and 368 which drive shafts 370 and 372 of capstans 358' and 356!,respectively. The drive shaft 372 drives pulley 374 which drives pulley376 through belt 378.

The stacking station 46 is described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 20.The function of the stacking station 46 is identical to that disclosedin Ser. No. 820,705 regarding the grouping of cards in two sections of atray 390 in which the front section 392 receives properly embossed andrecorded cards and the rear section receives cards which have errors ineither embossing or recording. Gate 396 is moved toward the frontsection 392 or rear section 394 of the tray under the control of themaster controller to channel the processed cards in the correct locationin accordance of whether or not an error condition is detected. Thecontrol of the gate 396 is in a manner identical to that disclosed inSer. No. 820,705.

The discharge 398 of the topping station 44 uses gravity to cause thecards to fall into the appropriate section 392 or 394 of the tray 390.The receiving surface 400 of the tray is inclined approximately twentydegrees to the horizontal. Once the rear edge of a card leaves the nipof the final roller pair 358, the card tips over apex 402 into theappropriate section of the tray. At least half of the longitudinaldimension of a card should be past the apex 402 when the trailing edgeof the card leaves the nip of the roller pair 358 to insure that thecard tips over center. The advantage of the gravity feed is that theembossing of the card being discharged does not initially frictionallyengage the embossing of the card which has immediately been previouslydischarged. The embossed characters between adjacent cards tend to bindwith each other if the cards are aligned with each other. Theinclination of the receiving surface 400 from the apex 402 downward fromthe horizontal in the direction that the cards move through the toppingstation 44, prevents binding of adjacent cards during discharge becausethe tipping over center of apex 402 provides sufficient inertia toprevent hangups of the card being discharged with the stacked cardswhich could occur if the receiving surface of the tray was horizontaland in the same plane as the path of the cards through the topper 44.After the individual cards are released from the nip, the bottom edgeslides on surface 400 until the left-hand edge hits the wall 404. Theinertia of the card in sliding down surface 400 prevents handup of itsembossing with the embossing of an adjacent embossed card.

Processing of Data Records for Embossing and Recording

The individual data records which are processed by the present inventionare read off a magnetic tape sequentially and are transmitted to theembossing and recording unit controllers. With the invention each datarecord has two main parts with the data to be embossed being recordedfirst. A unique code marks the end of the record to be embossed. Thetracks of data to be magnetically recorded as digitally encodedcharacters follow the unique code. The portion of the data record to beembossed is broken down into separate lines to be embossed with eachline being marked by an end of line code. The beginning of each track 1,2 and 3 of encoded characters to be magnetically recorded is marked witha unique character with the beginning of track 1 being worked with a %character, the beginning of track 2 being marked with a semicolon (;)character and the beginning of track 3 being marked with an exclamationpoint (!) character. The master controller described below has a dynamicmemory which contains a main buffer (illustrated in FIGS. 21 and 22 aselement 410) which stores blocks of data records. The processing of datarecords by the embossing units 38 and indent printer 40 is describedwith reference to FIG. 21 and the processing of data records by themagnetic recording station 34 is described with reference to FIG. 22.The main buffer stores a block of data records which are fed from a tapeunit. The data is received from the tape in EBCDIC code and istranslated into ASCII as it is placed in the main buffer by a programimplemented by the master controller.

In the preferred embodiment where a total of four embossers 38 and anindent printer 40 are used to emboss and print five vertically separatedhorizontally disposed lines of characters, the flow of card recordswithin the embossing system is illustrated in FIG. 21. The processing ofdata records to be embossed is analogous to FIG. 24 of Ser. No. 820,705with the difference being the number of lines being embossed. Only theindent printer buffer and one embosser buffer has been illustrated tosimplify FIG. 21. As illustrated in FIG. 21, individual cards 10 aremoved by the pickup mechanism 60 to the recording station 34, by theelevating mechanism 160 to the ready station 161, by the card transportunit 42 between the indent printing unit 40 and the successive embossingunits and by the transparent unit 52 to the topping station 44. A queueof data buffers 414, which is comprised of a main data buffer 410,recording station buffer 416, ready station buffer 418, indent stationbuffer 420, embossing station buffer 422 and topping station buffer 424,sequentially store the individual records during processing by thestations. The plurality of buffers are implemented in main memory of themaster controller by pointers which point to successive blocks of memoryto produce the shifting operation of data which is indicated by thearrows pointing to the right from each of the buffers 410, 416-424.Since a queue of buffers implemented in main memory is well known, theimplementation will not be discussed in detail herein.

With reference to FIG. 21, it should be understood that each physicalposition that a card occupies, with the exception of the input hopper,has an assigned buffer. When the master controller is ready to accept adata record for embossing a card, it will transfer the contents of themain buffer 410 sequentially into the buffers 416-424 by the time an endof line code has been detected in all of the buffers. The data for line1 associated with the data record stored in printer buffer 420 iscoupled to indent printer 40, the data record for line 5 associated withthe data record stored in embosser buffer 422 is coupled to embosser 38.By the time an end of line command has been detected in the processingof the data records by each of the indent printer and embosser buffers,the pointers of the indent printer and embossing buffers are shifted topoint to the area in main memory where the next data record to beembossed and printed by the associated embossers 38 and indent printer40 is located. The shifting of the pointers effectively produces ashifting of the data records within the buffers which is synchronizedwith the physical passage of the card to be embossed between thesuccessive printing unit 40 and embossing units 38 to produce thesequential printing and embossing of the five lines of data on the card14-18 and 24 of FIGS. 8a and 8b. The section of the main memory in themaster controller which implements the queue of buffers 414 is updatedwith data records from the magnetic tape unit as cards are embossed.

The processing of the portion of each data record from the main buffer410 which is magnetically recorded on the tracks as digitally encodedcharacters is described with reference to FIG. 22. The information fromtracks 1, 2 and 3 of the main buffer 410 is transmitted from the mastercontroller to the recording station controller 464 described below inconjunction with FIGS. 24(a)-(f) by time multiplexing of 8-bitbidirectional bus 425 which is illustrated schematically. First, secondand third track data buffers 426-430, within the recording stationcontroller 464, respectively store the entirety of the encodedcharacters of each of the associated tracks which are to be recorded foreach card being processed. The purpose of the track data buffers 426-430is to provide a reference storage for each of the characters which weredesired to be recorded on each of the tracks. When the tracks are playedback by movement of the magnetic head assembly 122 in a directionopposite to the direction of recording, as described above withreference to FIGS. 6-9, the individual played back characters arecompared with the corresponding character stored in the data bufferassociated with the track from which the character was played back topermit verification of the accuracy of the recording process. The threetrack data buffers 426-430 are set up in the RAM section of the magneticrecording controller 464. The actual tracks of information aretransmitted from the main buffer 410 via the bus 425 when a record to betransferred from the tape to the main buffer is sensed by the presenceof a feed request flag and the belt 48 is sensed by reading of the DCmotor and shaft encoder 126 to have moved past position I in the unitsillustrated in FIG. 1a. Each track data buffer 426-430 has the capacityto store the maximum number of multibit characters described above inconjunction with FIG. 2. Each track data buffer 426-430 has a pointerwhich identifies the current character being processed. The pointer foreach track is augmented by one when the number of bits comprising acharacter has been recorded and decremented by one when the number ofbits comprising a character has been played back. The track data buffers426-430 perform the function of outputting the individual bits to berecorded to the magnetic head 136 in serial form from the parallelstorage format therein. An appendix referred to below contains a sourcecode listing of the preferred form of program for processing theverification function of the recorded data including the storage inparallel form and outputting for recording to the record head. Each ofthe characters stored in the track data buffers 426-430 is read outunder control of one of the clock pulse generators 132 or 134 which aresynchronized with movement of the magnetic head assembly 122.

During playback, the bit stream for each track produced by movement ofthe head assembly 122 in the direction opposite to the direction ofrecording for each track is applied serially to track shift registers432, 434 and 436. The track shift registers 432, 434 and 436 arerespectively associated with the track buffers 426, 428 and 430. Thetrack shift registers 432, 434 and 436 are preferably hardware registerswithin the microprocessor control which are part of the magneticrecording station controller described below in conjunction with FIGS.24(a)-(f). Each register 432, 434 and 436 has a bit capacity equal tothe number of bits used to encode a character on the associated track.The prior art two frequency coherent phase recording process permits theplayed back data to generate the requisite clock signal illustrated asan input to registers 432-436 for controlling the conversion of theserial input into a parallel output having a number of bits equal to thebits required to encode a character for that track.

Each of the registers 432, 434 and 436 performs two separate functions.The first function is to serially store the playback bit streambit-by-bit beginning with all zeros at the right-hand edge of the cardto provide a storage for comparing, as each bit is played back, the bitsstored therein with the LRC for that track to identify the last bit ofthe character immediately preceding the LRC. Second, once the positionof the LRC is known, the track registers 432-436 sequentially storecharacters, which are identified by reference to the detected positionof the LRC character, that are to be compared by the master controllerwith the corresponding character stored in the associated track buffers426-430. Once the LRC is detected, the character pointer is set to pointto the preceding character. As each successive character from a track isplayed back, the character pointer in the associated track buffer isdecremented by one until all of the characters recorded on the trackhave been compared by the master controller with the correspondingreference character stored in associated track buffer.

For each track the comparison process must produce (1) a match of theplayed back bit pattern for that track with the LRC stored in theassociated track buffer and (2) a match between all played backcharacters and the corresponding characters stored in the associatedtrack buffer for the subsequent embossing process to be enabled. If anerror condition is detected, the master controller may either attemptone or more additional times to record the same information or to passthe card through the printing unit 40 and embossing units 38 to the rearsection 394 of tray 390. A flag is set by the master controller when anerror condition is detected. This flag causes the card to be rejected.

Master Controller 440

The master controller 440 of the present invention is described withreference to FIG. 23 and is similar to that disclosed in Ser. No.820,705 with the principal differences being that in the presentinvention the master controller controls five inline units which areindent printer 40 and four embossers 38 instead of three inlineembossers in Ser. No. 820,705, and the activation of the pickupmechanism 60, the card elevating mechanism 160, and the magneticrecording station 34, and the stoppage of the card transport unit 42with only a single reference position located off the card (e.g. 250) toverify all check points in the system are in order prior to reactivationof the card transport unit 42 to pick up a new card. The mastercontroller 440 controls communications throughout the system. The mastercontroller 440 is implemented in a programmed microprocessor. Identicalreference numbers are used herein to identify the same parts identifiedby the same reference numerals in the previous figures. Inputcommunications are received from the operator console 442 and controlpanel 444 by a command processor and status reporting unit 446.Communications from the magnetic tape drive 448 are received by the tapecontroller unit 450. The master controller 440, which includes aprogrammed microprocessor having a control program similar to that setforth in the Microfiche Appendix of Ser. No. 820,705, performs thefunctions of managing input communications by the tape controllersection 450 and a command processor and status reporting section 446.The belt position control section 452 controls the operation of thedrive motor 54 in the manner described above. The master time controlsection 454 responds to the RSHUT and ESHUT signals generated by atiming disk attached to the cam 266 of the third embossing unit 38. Thedisk is illustrated in FIG. 23 of Ser. No. 820,705. Transitions of thedisk generate the RSHUT signal, generate an interrupt and synchronize aninternal timer for generating the ESHUT signal which is generatedinternally by the master time control section 454. The communicationcontrol section 456 communicates the labelled output signals to thecommunication bus 458 which is coupled to five identical embossercontrollers 460 and a hopping station and topping station controller462. The indent printer 40 is controlled by an embosser controller. Thebus communications are time multiplexed within six equal bus cyclesCTS1-CTS6 of the high level of the ESHUT signal which is a fixedinterval of the RSHUT signal. A read-write memory 464 stores informationgenerated dynamically during operation. The preferred electricalcircuitry for implementing the individual embosser controllers 460 isillustrated in FIG. 38 of Ser. No. 820,705 with the exception that eachembosser controller is provided with a selectable control block for theribbon drive of the indent embosser 40. The preferred circuitry forimplementing the controller 462 is illustrated in FIG. 39 of Ser. No.820,705 with the exception of the controller has a drive for the motor92 of the card pickup mechanism 60 in place of the rack motor, a drivefor the elevator mechanism motor 166. The master controller 440 alsocontrols the embosser drive motor 258 which, through belt 248, providespower for each of the inline embossing units 38 and indent printer 40.The conditions for activating the pickup mechanism 60, card elevatingmechanism 160 and magnetic recording station 34, have been describedabove. The control of the card transport unit 42 with a single referenceposition to check system status is analogous to the use of multiplereference positions described in Ser. No. 820,705 for controlling thetransport unit. Communications between the master controller 460 and themagnetic recording station controller 464, which is illustrated indetail in FIGS. 24(a-f) described below is by time multiplexing the8-bit directional bus 425 described above with reference to FIG. 22.

Recording Station Controller 464

The preferred form of the recording station controller 464 for themagnetic recording station is illustrated in FIGS. 24(a-f). Thecontroller 464 has an on board microprocessor, random access memory forimplementing the buffers 426-430 and registers for implementing thefunctions of registers 432-436 of FIG. 22. Conventional integratedcircuits are identified by their industry accepted part numbers.Separate windings are provided for recording and playback in themagnetic head 136. Communications to and from the master controller aretime multiplexed on the single bidirectional bus 425 described above.The clock signal for each of the playback tracks, which is shown as aninput to the registers 432-436 of FIG. 22, is produced by the integratedcircuit 466 associated with the lower playback windings.

Program Listing

The following program listing is a source code listing of the subroutineof the master controller program which verifies the recording accuracyof the magnetic recording station as described above with reference toFIG. 22. The program is copyrighted. A limited license is granted toanyone who requires a copy of the program disclosed therein for purposesof understanding or analyzing the present invention, but no license isgranted to make a copy for any other purpose, including the loading of aprocessing device with code in any form or language. ##SPC1##

While the invention has been described in terms of its preferredembodiments, it should be understood that numerous modifications may bemade to the invention without departing from its spirit and scope asdefined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for verifying the accuracy of recordingencoded data on one or more tracks of a magnetic recording medium by acomparison of the recorded data with data which was the source of thedata which was recorded comprising:storing a data record of the one ormore tracks to be recorded on the recording medium, each track having aplurality of characters with each character being encoded with a fixednumber of bits; calculating a check character as a last character to berecorded for each of the tracks to be recorded for the data record;recording the one or more tracks of the magnetic recording medium withthe encoded characters by relative movement of a magnetic recordingmeans in a first direction with respect to each track, each track beingrecorded with the check character being recorded after the othercharacters in the track are recorded with a repeating bit pattern beingrecorded after the check character; playing back each of the one or moretracks of the magnetic recording medium by relative movement of themagnetic recording means with respect to each track in a seconddirection opposite to the first direction to produce a sequence ofplayed back bits, the bit stream from each track being shifted through ashift register means associated with the track as the bits are playedback with the shift register storing a number of bits equal to thenumber of bits for encoding a character for that associated track;comparing as each successive bit is played back from each track thecheck character of that track with the contents of the associated shiftregister means until a match is detected with the check character forthat track; and comparing for each track, after a match is detected foreach track, each played back character with the corresponding storedcharacter for that track to detect any errors in recording.
 2. A methodfor verifying the accuracy of recording encoded data in accordance withclaim 1 wherein the comparison for each track of each played backcharacter with the corresponding stored character comprises:storing inthe shift register means successive groups of played back characterswhich follow the check character; and comparing each character stored inthe shift register means with the corresponding stored character todetermine if a match exists.
 3. A method for verifying the accuracy ofrecording encoded data in accordance with claim 2 wherein the order ofcomparison of the played back characters for each of the tracks isopposite the order in which the characters were recorded.
 4. A methodfor verifying the accuracy of recording encoded data in accordance withclaim 2 further comprising:storing for each track any failure to detecta match of the recorded check character of that track within the playedback track as an error in the recording process; and for each cardstoring for each track any errors in recording of the characters otherthan the check character.
 5. A method in accordance with claim 1 whereinthe recording medium is a blank which is to be embossed into a creditcard.
 6. A system for sequentially recording a track of a plurality ofdigitally encoded characters each encoded with a plurality of bits on arecording medium by movement in a first direction of a recording andplayback means along the recording medium and for verifying that therecorded characters were recorded without error by movement of therecording and playback means in a second direction opposite the firstdirection to sequentially playback the bit stream recorded in the trackin an order opposite to the order of recording comprising:means formoving the recording and playback means in a straight path from a firstposition to a second position to cause the track of a plurality ofdigitally encoded characters to be recorded on the recording medium andfor moving the recording and playback means from the second positionback to the first position to playback the recorded track of digitallyencoded characters; a memory for storing the track of characters to berecorded including a check character as the last character of the track;means for determining the check character for the track of characters tobe recorded which is recorded as the last character in the track; meansresponsive to the recording and playback means and the memory duringplayback for comparing the played back bit stream bit by bit with thecheck character until a sequence of played back bits identical to thecheck character is found, and for comparing after the sequence is playedback bits identical to the check character is found, sequentially theplayed back characters with corresponding characters stored in thememory to determine if all characters were recorded without error.
 7. Asystem in accordance with claim 6 wherein the order of comparison of theplayed back characters stored in the memory is opposite to the order inwhich the characters wre recorded.
 8. A system in accordance with claim7 wherein if a sequence of bits identical to the check character is notfound during playback, the entire track is again recorded.
 9. A systemin accordance with claim 7 wherein if an error is found in a characterwithin the track other than the check character, the entire track isagain recorded.
 10. A system in accordance with claim 6 wherein themeans for comparing includesshift register means for storing a number ofbits equal to the number of bits for recording a character on the trackwhich has an input coupled to the recording and playback means and anoutput with each bit which is inputted causing the discarding of a bitat the output which preceded the inputted bit by a number of bits equalto the number of bits stored by the shift register and wherein; thecomparison of the played back bit stream to identify the check characteris made between the stored check character and the contents of the shiftregister means as each bit is inputted, and the comparison for each ofplayed back characters is made between a totally new group of bitsstored within the register and the corresponding stored character.
 11. Asystem in accordance with claim 10 wherein the means for comparingduring the comparison of played back characters with the storedcharacters shifts a new group of bits equal to the number of bits forencoding a character each time a new character is compared with the newgroup of bits being determined with respect to the last bit of the bitpattern in the played back bit stream which is identical to the checkcharacter.